Отрывок из книги
James Tucker
Published by Good Press, 2021
.....
This proved to be the case. While they had been in search of some deer stealers, they had been attracted to this spot by the outcries of our adventurer, whose life they had thus opportunely saved. They listened to Ralph’s tale with much astonishment and many execrations upon their three prisoners, whom, as the daylight was now at hand, they proposed to escort to Southampton Gaol.
On their way thither, they were met by two decent-looking men who took the head gamekeeper aside. After some conversation, Ralph was called to join them, when he was asked whether he had any objection to forgiving the smugglers if a sum of money were paid to him in atonement for their offence. The gamekeeper, who probably looked upon smuggling as a very venial crime, or at any rate as being of much less enormity than that of deer stealing, raised not the smallest difficulty at letting the prisoners go; while Ralph, who hated all law and detested the idea of appearing before a magistrate, considered besides — since the chief smuggler had escaped, with his principal coadjutor — that neither of the three men who were taken had been active in persecuting him. So our adventurer agreed, if the sum Of £20 were paid to him as a douceur, and the rest of the party satisfied, why, he was content to let the matter drop.
.....
